Anyway ... It's like this. One guy, a particular scholar/Bible Teacher/preacher (and dear friend o' mine) gets on his page, and opens up a subject, e.g. "The Gospel". You wouldn't believe how many different folks "come out of the woodwork" to take him on . . . and he's just "feedin' the sheep".
Now I might be mistooken, but I think you have to be someone's FRIEND before you can reply to someone's posts, etc. SO ... these peeps get on there and "befriend" someone, for the sheer purpose of "picking apart their beliefs" or scrutinizing their words ... or even blasting them as "heretics" -- ALL IN THE NAME OF "the marketplace of ideas"! And I will admit, some controversy I like, to some degree (after all they call me "the radical pastor" LOL) and a good discussion or debate I don't mind OR to answer honest, objecting "truth-seekers" who just really want to KNOW THE TRUTH and clear up THE MUD.
BUT when the scholarship has been presented (such as on the topic of HELL) and the Greek/Hebrew words have been explored and offers to examine certain words in Lexicon have been made ... offers to visit a website (like tentmaker.org -- for example) and offers to check out a list of scriptures too ...
>>>AND THEN INSTEAD OF COMRADESHIP, THE RESPONSE IS A SPEWING<<<
of name-calling, doctrinal rants, superiority and comparison --
INSTEAD OF THE NOBLE BEREAN ATTITUDE of
"we'll check these things out ourselves to see if they are so" --
I HAVE TO SAY:
OH BROTHER.
You know Language is an interesting thing.
Here in The States we speak mostly in ENGLISH and maybe variations of it, dialectically speaking. Spanish-Speaking peoples have different dialects, even DIFFERENT WORDS, when you travel down south you'll see. {Some of us can just hang around Phoenix and observe because not ALL of the immigrants/residents/citizens HERE all hail from Mexico. Some are from 'other countries' {Like Guatemala, Brazil, Ecuador, Spain, etc. etc.} Even the "street-Spanish" here is different from the mostly Castillian Spanish they taught us in high escuela. And then, you get a lot of 'SPANGLISH', which I end up speaking in, more often than not.
One more thing. IF YOU YOU ARE A BIBLE TRANSLATOR, AND GO TO ANOTHER COUNTRY, (and I mean you're one of the "good translators", a purist ), And YOUR JOB is to faithfully translate The Bible in a "new language" -- one that's never seen the light of scriptures before ... You cannot take your KJV or trusty NIV down there and use it as a main basis of translation! NOPE. [ Shades of Jerome here, eh? ... translate from Hebrew/Greek to LATIN, hard for common peeps, keep them confused and then chain the Bible to the pulpit after it has been translated in English, after the Latin, of course! ]
You will be relying on your good linguistic sense, training, the sense of the language you are translating into and you will be using complete and accurate Hebrew/Greek Bibles for this job. And most of all, hopefully, You will be relying on THE HOLY SPIRIT! YOU MUST HAVE A WHOLISTIC UNDERSTANDING OF THE BIBLE WITHOUT INJECTING YOUR PRE-CONCEIVED DOCTRINES IN THERE. Now, if you use English word construction for a concept, for example, "I love you with all my heart" and there is NO word for HEART in their language, you have a problem. SO ... you find out by talking to the natives that they love people "with all their liver"! Hmmm. Makes sense. After all, where is the seat of emotions?? Then you find out they have 7 words that could mean 'love', but all of them are specific, and you must use the right word in the right context, or you might make somebody mad (or confused)!
CONFUSION is what we have gotten because we have trusted an English version of The Bible, and were told to NEVER question it! Worse, some pastors out there make you feel stupid if you question THEM!! As in the case of the topic of 'HELL' (again), the texts use 4 words, sparingly I might add. SHEOL ... HADES ... GEHENNA ... TARTURUS. NONE OF THESE WORDS EVER MEAN "HELL" AND NONE OF THESE WORDS COMPARE TO "HELL" NOR CAN THEY BE FAITHFULLY TRANSLATED AS SUCH.
So ... we have to ask ourselves the HARD QUESTIONS. AND not be afraid to do so! The Apostle Paul ... NOT! Jesus ... NOT! Neither of them owned or used a copy of the 1611 King James ... nope. They used OT scriptures, The Septuagint. Hmmm. Greek translation of The Hebrew. Nobody ever questioned them on how they used it either. If we could go into a time machine, hand them a KJV, and a book on "English for dummies" They would say, "Who wrote this 'Bible'???" Because THAT Bible, along with some others ... SORRY FOLKS ... it just doesn't hold up to the FAITHFUL record in the oldest scrolls we possess of The Scriptures ... Old & New. We have been told to trust it because of the "beauty of the prose" or the way it flows, or "this is what it means." KJV was ONE of many translations of the day; and I dare say that many of you, if you were to pick up an ancient copy of it, couldn't read it. Also the book has gone through countless revisions, meaning, that there were gross errors and changes of language. Do you know anybody who speaketh Elizabethan English?
*** [Maybe we should pass out a case of the "Cottonpatch Version" just so we can have a wider understanding of communicating TRUTH in other cultures!] ***
+++ [ Amazing to me, how many preacher/teachers will have copies of other Bibles on their pulpits & libraries that they refer to, and to "correctly" interpret words ... because of the errors ... AND yet continue to COMMAND that EVERYBODY must use the KJV *Or Else* !!! ] +++
IT'S HARD to trust a Bible Version that has so many errors, and so much injection of man-made doctrines in it, because the translators chose to translate certain but VITAL words WRONG! . . . According to their predominantly Calvinistic bents!
SO EVERYBODY GET OUT YOUR LEXICONS and your concordances, your Strongs', Your "Concordant Literal Translations" ETC. -- and study the words that were FIRST delivered to mankind in Greek/Hebrew/Aramaic and remember that good ol' ENGLISH doesn't always CUT IT.
WE MUST BE WILLING TO LET GO OF TRADITIONS, CHURCH HISTORY (as far as indoctrination goes) SYSTEMS OF BELIEFS, DENOMINATIONAL BIAS, PROGRAMMING BY CHURCH LEADERS, FAMILY TRADITIONAL INDOCTRINATION, IF it does NOT line up with THE TRUTH. WE MUST BE WILLING TO QUESTION AGE-OLD,
LONG-HELD DOCTRINES IF THEY BEGIN TO FALL APART, AND NO LONGER MAKE SENSE.
Language Matters. Interpretation Matters. Translation MATTERS.
The purpose of this blog today ... is to celebrate the theatre of ideas,
BUT also to ENCOURAGE sound scholarship and, the removal of
FEAR and DENIAL regarding things we hold onto so tightly.
Never be afraid to re-examine WHAT YOU BELIEVE.
SO ... YAKETY YAK, It's OK to talk back.
It's OK to ask questions and to even object.
It's ok if you don't get it [yet].
Not all have come to 'more light' yet.
Their time is coming!
God promised that THE WHOLE EARTH would be
FILLED WITH HIS GLORY
and HIS TRUTH GOES MARCHING ON!!!
PEACE, PEOPLE.
TONY ;)
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